That, of course, explains the road show of Rev. Fred Phelps and his family members in Westboro Baptist Church. And it explains (some of) Pat Robertson’s periodic declarations of God’s imminent destruction of America, the most recent delivered after New York approved same-sex marriage. Now comes Bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, with his own prophecy of divine wrath following Rhode Island’s passage of a civil unions bill: “Can there be any doubt that Almighty God will, in His own time and way,
pass judgment upon our state, its leaders and citizens, for abandoning
His commands and embracing public immorality?” Well, yes, there can.

Phelps & Family are universally reviled. Robertson, these days, is treated as a laughingstock. How much longer will Tobin be regarded as a serious man? Gazing out at Frenchman Bay on a crystal-clear morning, such ecclesiastical fulminators seem tiny and remote. Have they entered into the springs of the sea, or walked in the search of the depth?